NANTERRE, France — Team USA almost finished swimming at the Paris Olympics without an individual men’s gold medal for the first time since 1900. They earned multiple medals, but none were gold before Sunday, the last day of the meet.
Enter Bobby Finke, who said he was well aware of that historic possibility, and he wasn’t about to let that happen. He also wanted to defend his 1,500-meter freestyle Olympic title from the 2021 Tokyo Games, and he didn’t disappoint.
Finke absolutely rocked his 1,500 free final. He took the lead on the first lap of the mile and never relinquished it. He won gold, he broke the world record and he earned the one and only men’s individual gold in the pool for Team USA.
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The crowd Paris La Défense Arena was going bonkers for Finke, and that included his distance swimming counterpart, superstar Katie Ledecky.
Ledecky — who won four Paris medals, including gold in the women’s 1,500, to become the most decorated American woman at the Olympics in any sport — was SO EXCITED for Finke, and cameras captured her animated cheering, cowbell in hand, and reaction:
It’s what training partners do, they support each other. #ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/JfG0ukIFQb
— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) August 4, 2024
NANTERRE, FRANCE – AUGUST 04: Katie Ledecky of Team United States shows support during the evening Swimming session on day nine of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Paris La Defense Arena on August 04, 2024 in Nanterre, France. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
After winning gold with a time of 14:30.67, Finke said he wasn’t looking for it, but he could see the world record line while racing.
More via my USA TODAY Sports story:
“I knew I just had to keep going and hopefully try and make the guys hurt a little bit trying to catch up to me,” Finke said. “They started catching up to me, and I was getting a little worried…
“At like that 300 mark, I was maybe like a body length [ahead]. I was like, ‘I can’t let go of this now. I can’t be the guy who got ran down after I do all the running down.’ So that was also a big factor in my mind.”
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